Don’t Remove the Oil- producing Communities ---Ijaw Youths Warn

PIB: Don’t Remove the Oil-
producing Communities’ Fund,
Ijaw Youths Warn
As the National Assembly prepares to kick off
debates on the controversial Petroleum...
Industry Bill (PIB), Ijaw youths monday
cautioned against the removal of the oil-
producing communities’ fund clauses in the
bill.
Speaking through their umbrella body, the
Ijaw Youths Congress (IYC), the body warned
that removing the clause that is aimed at
uplifting the oil-bearing communities from
poverty, would be counterproductive as it
could incite the people to return to bear arms.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s version
of the bill, which could not be passed during
the life of his administration, had provided for
the fund in Section 116, which set aside the
special fund for the people resident in oil-
producing areas. It stated: “There is
established a fund to be known as the
Petroleum Host Communities’ Fund.”
Stating the purpose of the fund, Section 117 of
the bill said it “shall be utilised for the
development of the economic and social
infrastructure of the communities within the
petroleum producing area”.
The bill also created the Petroleum Host
Communities’ Fund and prescribed 10 per cent
of the net profit of upstream oil companies to
be paid into the fund for the development of
the host communities.
But the Ijaw youths in a statement by the IYC
spokesman, Eric Omare, said there was a plan
to remove the special fund clauses from the
bill and warned that doing so would attract
angry protests from the oil-bearing
communities, particularly those in the Niger
Delta.
“This plan is obviously an invitation to
renewed hostilities and agitations in the Niger
Delta region. The IYC enjoins Nigerians and
men of conscience to reject this plan,” they
said.
Explaining that the oil communities’
development fund was a laudable initiative
aimed at making oil-producing communities
stakeholders in the oil resources produced in
their area as well as address the challenge of
sabotage and associated challenges. The
youths said the planned removal of the fund
would upset the relative peace currently
prevalent in the Niger Delta region.